Thursday, 1 October 2015

Celebrations and fear in Syria as Russian airstrikes begin

'A Hama local, who identified himself as Muhannad, 25, said on Wednesday night: “The airstrikes aren’t stopping. We have lost count of them. I can tell it is the Russians. They are faster and the sound of the bombs are different from those of the regime. They have bombed Talbiseh, al-Mukarama, Reef Homs al-shamali. All of these areas are mainly under FSA control. We don’t have here any Isis but we have a small number of al-Nusra. We expected this to happen but there is no place to flee to.”

Another Latakia local, who identified herself as Dima, believed Russia was not there to fight terrorism but to help the regime and its interests. “People with the regime have no mercy for Sunnis. If they are living on the side of the FSA and want to leave, they won’t let them. They don’t want anyone to leave alive.” '